The present invention relates generally to a set of characters which serve as a teaching aid providing tactile and visual cues as to the identity of the individual characters of the set and, more particularly, to a set of letters of the alphabet wherein each letter is formed from like smaller raised-print letters.
It is well known that young children's sense of touch is well developed; that is, young children can understand and retain much more about an object after they have handled it than if they had only looked at it. Several prior art educational aids and methods take advantage of this characteristic; typically in combination with either or both audio and visual cues. For example, a globe of the world will have the different land masses and countries outlined either by slightly depressed or raised borders as well as being colored in such a manner that no two countries of the same color are adjacent each other.
One prior art teaching aid known as "sandpaper letters" consists of a set of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Each letter is formed by depositing an amount of adhesive on a plastic plate in the form of the desired letter and then spreading fine sand or the like over the adhesive. When the adhesive drys, a letter is formed which one can feel or trace with the fingers. These sand letters are available in upper and lower case and in block, script or other print forms.